Axes and Scales

Introduction:  Axes and Scales

In the Physics Module we have been looking at scale and concepts that move between atoms and galaxies.  In today’s See Like a Scientist exercise, we will look at how scale is represented in visuals, specifically in items with two axes like bar charts and scatterplots.

What are they?  These visuals help you to compare information based on at least two characteristics (e.g. time, growth, size, money, population, etc.).   A video description of creating and interpreting bar charts.

Explore the description of creating and interpreting scatterplots.

Visit the following sites and take note of where you might be misled when trying to interpret axes:

Link to blog post on discussion on truncating the y-axis.

  Link to overview of misleading practices (focus on those involving axes and scales)

The main lesson to be learned is that you need to pay attention to the scale being used to describe information given to you.  Now let’s look at a particular treatment of an axis that might affect information that we talked about this week.

Visit the following site to examine the difference between Log and Linear Charts

After you have read the above, take a look at this example:

These scales came from Forbes.

Exercise:

In the graphs, the x-axis (the horizontal one) is year and on the y-axis (vertical or upright one) is the number of fish killed from environmental pollutants.   Do you think the same data are being graphed in the two visuals above?   Does one of these make you want to enact environmental protections more than the other?  Is it ethical to choose a visual type that is more persuasive?  Do you think one of these graph types would be better for helping you discuss concepts in physics and astronomy? Why or why not? 

You will be graded on the following criteria: